My Plus One

Henry looked at Marina; even with her hair up in a pony tail, dressed in a simple pair of black leggings and body-hugging white sweater, with over the knee black boots, he thought she looked gorgeous. "I think she always looks amazing," he said, smiling into her eyes. "Though she did look really beautiful last night, too."

Darius chuckled. "Now, that's the answer of a man in love."

Keeping his eyes on hers, Henry squeezed her hand, thinking that he wasn't wrong.

Darius put down his coffee, leaned in and whispered loud enough for them both to hear, "I just hope I get an invite to the wedding."

Laughing, Marina looked to see Henry's reaction, thinking he'd be uncomfortable talking about marriage, especially between the two of them. But he just kept smiling into her eyes, giving her hand another little squeeze.

Darius set his coffee cup back in the saucer and with his brows raised, he looked back and forth between the two couples. "Just to put it out there, for future consideration, I would like to point out that Darius is a very nice name for a boy."

As everyone laughed, he winked at Jenn and whispered against her ear, "Soon, I hope your dream comes true, and you'll be blessed with your very own bundle of joy."

Jenn kissed his soft brown cheek, and whispered, "Let's hope."

After they'd all said their goodbyes with lots of kisses and hugs, Henry went to the front desk to settle their bill, so could they start their journey back home.

He was surprised when the man at the desk, shook his head when he went to hand him his credit card, smiled and said, "Everything's been taken care of, Sir, courtesy of the bride and groom."

Marina standing nearby, was looking closely at a small framed photograph on a table by the front desk. Though it was kind of fuzzy, she could tell it was a young man dressed in what looked like old fashioned waist-coat and britches. As she studied his eyes, she could see that he looked haunted; his expression pained as he stared back at the person taking the picture.

As Henry put his credit card away, thinking he'd have to call and thank his brother and his new wife, Marina asked the man at the desk, "Does this man in the picture have something to do with the estate?"

Looking down at the photo, the young man nodded. "One of our guests, out for an early morning jog took that picture. That's William McPhee, affectionately known as 'Willie,' our resident ghost. Legend has it, he was a groom here at the estate, and he fell madly in love with the owner's daughter, a very pretty red-head," he said, smiling at Marina. "When the owner caught them alone together in the stable, he had the other servants tie him up, while he went to get a butcher knife from the kitchen, so he could dismember him, to make sure it never happened again. Imagine the terror in his eyes. His heart had to be in his throat as he awaited his fate."

Marina's eyes went big. "Oh, my goodness. And did he actually do it?"

He shook his head. "Apparently not. It seems the other servants took pity on Willie, since he was always friendly with the staff. As the master was looking for a knife, they let him go, and said that he'd over powered them."

"Oh, wow. What an amazing story." Then she thought about what Henry's mother had told her about the ghost. "He's not the willy waving ghost, that everyone's talking about, is he?"

The young guy laughed. "That's our Willie. The theory is, he's just trying to prove that he got away clean, and he still has is uh... equipment intact."

"That's too funny. It kind of makes sense though, he might have lost the girl, but he got to keep the family jewels."

"Well, some think that he is still roaming the grounds looking for his lady love, refusing to believe that he's lost her."

Looking over at Marina, Henry could sympathise. "Too bad we never got a chance to see him while we were here."

Smiling, the young man shrugged as he went to answer the phone. "Maybe next time. Thanks for staying with us. Hope you have a safe trip home."

As Henry was steering his way down the winding drive way, heading toward the gates, he looked over at Marina. "You believe that story? Or you think it's just something they tell the guests to keep them coming back, hoping to see the ghost."

"I don't know. It sounds like quite a few people have seen him." Then she took a glance at the side mirror, and could hardly believe her eyes. She reached over and grabbed Henry by the arm. "Henry, stop! Look back. It's Willie and he's waving."

As Henry stopped and turned his head, he said, "Is he waving his willy, or just waving?"

She laughed at that, but then she said, "Oh, look, it's like he's disappearing in a puff of smoke. You saw him, though, right?"

"Yeah, I got a glimpse."

"Well, I guess we got our answer, because he looked real enough to me."

"Yep, I'd say they've got a ghost."

Driving down the highway, taking in the fall colors, Henry turned on the radio, and he felt Marina giving him the side-eye as Drake and Rihanna's, hit song 'Take Care,' was playing. As Rihanna crooned, "I know you've been hurt by someone else. I can tell by the way you carry yourself. If you let me in, here's what I'll do, I'll take care of you." He thought it might be his cue.

They drove for a while in silence, till finally he cleared his throat and decided it might be time to open up to her, and let her know where he was coming from.

First, he reached for her hand, and pressed a kiss to her fingers and looked into her eyes, before he started. "I was in a relationship a few years back, that ended pretty badly. It's basically why I gave up on dating."

Though she'd heard most of it from Jenn, Marina just nodded, and let him get it out.

"She was dancer, a ballerina, top of her game when she got hurt.

"She'd been wanting to move in with me, and I finally agreed, but I didn't realize it was because she was broke, and couldn't afford to pay her rent. I also didn't know that she'd become addicted to her pain meds, and started buying whatever she could off the street. She needed money to keep up her habit, and for a while I didn't notice that money was disappearing from my bank account and that she'd also started to sneak money out of my wallet. But that's when I knew she was in over her head, when I realized she was stealing from everyone she knew. I offered to get her help, managed to get into one of the best rehab facilities in the country. But she barely stayed a week and walked out, and went back to her old ways." He shrugged. "And then she died. Got hit by taxi fighting with a dealer over some pills."

"How sad." Marina squeezed his hand, feeling his pain.

"Yeah, it was pretty bad. We weren't really involved anymore by then, but it still hit me hard, especially since I had to go down to the morgue to identify her body, with all her family in Russia. I had to call and tell them she was dead, too, at only twenty-seven."

Not even sure what to say, she wrapped her hand around his and just held it tight.

He shrugged. "So, that kind of put me off dating. Didn't feel like I could trust anyone anymore."

She nodded. "I never went through anything that bad, but I know I've got trust issues. Last guy I was seeing, was trying to convince me that were solid enough that it was time he moved in with me. Though I didn't even know where he lived, even after we'd been dating for over six months. Turned out, he couldn't take me home because he had a two-year-old son, that he'd neglected to mention, along with a baby mama that he was still involved with, considering they were sharing a one-bedroom apartment.

"A mutual friend told me to steer clear of him, and when I asked why, she told me the whole story."

Looking down at her hands in her lap, she murmured, "It wasn't the first time I'd been lied to, and eventually I just got tired of trying to figure it all out; who was lying, who was telling the truth, or if I even cared enough to want to know. So, I decided to take a break, and..." She smiled at him across the car. "That's how I wound up in your class, with my sister dragging me there to get me out of the house."

He smiled back and lifted her hand to lips and kissed her knuckles. "Well, I'm glad she did, or we never would have met."

"Me, too."

When they got to her place, he helped with her bags. At her front door, smiling into her eyes, he brushed a kiss to her lips and surprised her when he winked and said, "Guess I'll see you in class." Then he was jogging back to his van and driving away.

"Yeah, I guess so," she said as she watched the van disappear around the corner.

Or maybe not.

Marina was reading a long wordy email for the third time, trying to decipher exactly what her client needed. From what he was saying, it sounded like he had a large open space that he wanted converted into lots of smaller work spaces, while still trying to make the place feel open and spacious. She shook her head, wondering if she'd read it right, and decided to read it again later, or maybe reach out to him to see if he could explain it any better over the phone.

Rubbing the back of her neck, she thought maybe a cup of herbal tree and stepping outside for a few minutes, might help her to think.

Of course, it probably would help if she could get a certain tall, dark handsome baker out of her head. She wondered how just a few days away with him, had her wishing for more.

But he'd made it pretty clear that he thought she was too young for him, and he wasn't interested in anything more than what they'd already shared.

He didn't even offer to come in when he'd dropped her off, just muttered, "See you at class," and left.

At the sink, about to fill the kettle, her phone chimed, and she picked it up and noticed it was her sister. "Hey you."

Annika, chuckled. "Hey you, too. So, what have you been up to lately?"

"Oh, you know, the usual." No way in hell was she going to tell her about her few days away with Henry, or she'd never let her hear the end of it. And her mother would probably be calling her next, to ask her what happened with this new man she'd heard about, because her sister could never keep a secret.

"Well, at least we've got the cake class tomorrow night to look forward to, so that'll get you away from the house for a couple of hours."

Marina wrinkled her nose as she tried to wiggle out of going. "I was kind of thinking that I might not go back. I'm pretty busy right now. And as we all know, I don't exactly have a knack for creating pretty cakes. You saw that disaster I made last time."

"But we've finished everything we've taken so far, even that horrible hot yoga class that we both hated. Frying our asses off every week, and twisting ourselves into pretzels, was no fun for either of us. We got through it though, and stuck it out till the end. And this class is just for fun. It's not like we're being tested, or anything. So what if your cake looked like a dick. We're still learning something, and getting a little better at it every week."

Except, that she was afraid that her heart might actually break the minute she saw Henry again.

As Marina walked into the classroom with her sister by her side, she was a little afraid to lift her gaze from the floor to look at Henry.

But he seemed fine, and just smiled and said hi to everyone like he usually did. And told them they'd be working on birthday cakes, which he thought would come in handy for most of them

He took a few white iced cakes out of the fridge, and explained as he created a border around the bottom of one of them, that there were lots of different trims they could use to finish off a cake.

He let Annika try and do some of the border, he'd just done. Then Irena smirked, looking smug, when the part she did looked as good as Henry's.

Then it was Marina's turn, which meant she had to go up and stand next to him while trying to create a border, without shaking like a leaf, or breaking into tears.

Henry noticed her hand was pretty shaky, so he wrapped his hand around hers, and explained, "Just do one loop at a time, and keep the pressure steady. That's it."

Though she could feel her heart pounding just from the touch of his hand, Marina just nodded and stepped aside so someone else could do the next part.

After they'd all had a turn, he showed them how to create roses, as he spun a few delicate little blooms on a little metal holder, that he transferred onto the cake.

"Now, let's do it together," he said, and walked them through the steps, until they'd all produced something that looked like a flower. A few of them looked almost perfect and some of them, like hers, not so much.

Henry showed them a few of the other specially designed tips and explained how easy it was to pipe leaves or little petals on a cake, which he said they could use to decorate the whole surface.

Marina began to relax when she realized that all they were doing was their usual class, and Henry wasn't doing anything differently, or going out of his way to make her feel uncomfortable.

Still, she kept her eye on the clock, counting down the minutes till she could clean up her work bench and leave.

Then he said, "Of course, you can't do a birthday cake without writing Happy Birthday across it. So, I'll show you a few different ways to write."

He held up a plastic device that he was slipping little plastic letters into, explaining, "If you're worried about ruining your cake once it comes to writing on it, this thing's almost fool proof. You just slide the letters across, centre them, push them into the frosting, then..." as he traced each indention with icing, he said, "you just fill in each letter. See I've got HAPPY on there now, and I'll change the letters and slide on the letters for BIRTHDAY, and carefully trace those, too. Of course, then you can add any name you want, providing that it fits on the slide."

Everyone tried it, and even Marina thought she'd done a pretty good job, especially when Henry stepped beside her and said, "That's it, looks good."

Then he showed them how to write free-hand and a lot of them pulled a face, when they saw how easy it was for him to write beautiful script with a piping bag, knowing how hard it would be for them.

He suggested they practice writing on their work surfaces, so they could wipe it off and try again, if it didn't come out right.

When he told them, "This is something you should all be able to do by the end of this course, if you practice enough."

Marina had her doubts, hers looked pretty awful, and really uneven, no matter how carefully she tried to squeeze out each letter.

Henry came up beside her, and as she waited to hear what he thought of her wonky script, her stomach dropped when he said, "I think you'd better stay after class, and we can practice a little more."

No surprise, her sister Annika was grinning like a fool, after she overheard Henry asking her to stay. Since Annika was her ride again tonight, Marina knew she had to tell him that she couldn't stay. And she also decided to tell him that this would be her last class.

Deciding she'd try it one more time, she was squeezing the bag of red icing onto her work bench, trying to make a decent letter 'H', but nothing was coming out, so using both hands, she squeezed even harder. Then the tip fell off and everyone laughed at the fart sound the bag made when the icing blasted out of the open end onto the table.

Mortified, she looked at her hands, covered in red icing and headed to washroom to clean up. Class was almost over, and she knew she wouldn't be back.

When she came out again, everyone was gone, including her sister. Except of course for Henry, who was checking the tip that had fallen off her piping bag and caused the mess.

"Did you sift the icing sugar, before you mixed the icing?"

She shook her head. "No, I forgot."

"That's why it came off. A solid piece of sugar was stuck in the end, and when you kept squeezing, the icing had nowhere to go and the tip blew off."

She heaved a sigh. "Okay. Guess I'll know for next time, though I should probably tell you that I don't think I'll be coming back."

"But there's still a few more classes."

"I know. But I feel like I'm wasting your time, when you could be working with someone else who doesn't suck at this as bad as I do."

"I wouldn't say you suck at it."

She gave him an eyeroll, when she noticed that he was trying to keep a straight face.

"Why don't we practice," he said, as he pulled over another plain white frosted cake. "And we'll take our time, and see what we can do together."

He handed her another piping bag filled with red icing, and got in behind her and wrapped his hand around hers. Then starting at the top, he piped a beautiful letter, "I." Then, he piped "Love" and he finished by piping "You."

Marina bit into her lip to keep from crying as she read the message on the cake. "I Love You."

He turned her in his arms and whispered, "I do. I love you, Marina."

She wiped at her eyes. "I love you, too."

Then he kissed her, long and slow.

Once they finally broke the kiss, he looked into her eyes, and whispered against her lips, "Come home with me tonight."

"Or, you could come home with me, if you don't mind the cats."

Smiling, he kissed the end of her nose. "I like your cats."

Epilogue

Smiling up at Marina, warm and naked in their big, comfy bed, with her gorgeous long, red hair splayed around her shoulders, Henry decided that after living together for a year, it was time to finally move things along.

Grasping her around the hips, lifting her up, and shifting her where he needed her, he loved the way she smiled into his eyes as she sank her sweet little body down onto his.

"Hmm, you feel good," she whispered against his lips, grinning as she slipped her tongue into mouth, for a fiery hot kiss.

Groaning, as he thrust up and she pushed down, as their tongues tangled, and they tipped their heads to deepen the kiss, he decided nothing in the world felt better than spending a day in bed with the woman he loved.

Though, it was snowing so hard outside, there was really nowhere they could go. But right now, as she wrapped her warm, soft body around him, as he cupped her breasts in his hands, making her shiver as he tugged at her nipples, there was nowhere else he'd rather be, than with her.

"I love you," he whispered as he trailed his lips up to her ear, to suckle her earlobe.

"And I love you," she said as she clenched around him tight, giggling at the way he rolled his eyes.

Then he flipped her onto her back, making her squeal and laugh as he captured her hands over her head and kissed her hard on the mouth as they gazed into each other's eyes.

He thought she looked as elated as he felt, her green eyes dark with arousal as they began to make slow, sweet love as he began to slide himself back into her body.

Gazing into her eyes, he said, "I'm looking for someone to help me design a house for those two acres I bought, just north of here."

She nodded, her eyes dancing with amusement as he flexed his hips, did a little grinding and thrust a little deeper.

"I want it to have at least four bedrooms, and a really good-sized kitchen."

"Of course," she said, smiling up at him.

"But what I really need is someone to spend my life with."

Marina stared into eyes, blinking. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I don't want to play house with you anymore, Marina. I want to marry you, and have babies with you and spend the rest of my life with you. If you'll have me."

Blinking back tears, she whispered, "I would love to marry you, Henry."

Smiling, he went back in for another kiss as he reached under the pillow and slipped the ring that he'd hidden on her finger.

They had a Christmas themed wedding. Their horse drawn sleigh jingling as they rode to their reception. The sound of horse's hooves clop, clop clopping, along the old town's road, had people smiling and turning their heads as they admired the handsome couple. As the two nestled in the back under a big blanket, kissed and laughed and smiled into each other's eyes, thrilled to finally be married.